Share this:

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

NEW YORK (PIX11) - The man the Manhattan District Attorney's office says is responsible for the disappearance and murder of Etan Patz -- Pedro Hernandez -- was in a 7th Floor courtroom at 111 Centre Street today.

Hernandez, the suspect at the center of one of the city's greatest mysteries, attracted a throng of media to a 7th floor courtroom as well as the parents of Etan Patz.

Patz was six years old when he disappeared two blocks from his home on Prince Street as he walked to school for the very first time back in 1979.

As Hernandez sat in the courtroom wearing no emotion on his face, prosecutors played the dramatic video confession from May 24, 2012. Etan's mother, Julie Patz, left the courtroom before it started.

On video a calm Hernandez says, "I felt like something took over me" as he describes the strangling of the boy seconds after luring him to the basement of a bodega.

Hernandez also adds, "I wanted to let go, but I couldn't let go."

He then tells investigators how Patz didn't die in his presence, "He went down to the floor again gasping."

Hernandez then tells investigators that "even though he was still alive, I put him in a plastic bag."

From there he says that he put the boy in a banana box and dumped him on a pile of garbage in an alley on Thompson Street.

Also on the video Hernandez tells authorities that he has a bipolar condition and takes a number of medications.

As you heard this morning he has a psychiatric history and has been under psychiatric medicine for a number of years.

Hernandez's attorney Harvey Fishbein also adds that his client was not truly cognizant of what was going on as a result of his mental limitations, "he's been tested over the years three times and has an IQ of about 70."

The video is being played for both sides to make their case as to whether or not it will be allowed during trial.